Thanks for the memories, 2014.
January started off amazing when my husband won a design contest to create a “Welcome” sign for Bobby Flay’s new restaurant in Las Vegas. He won an overnight stay at a suite in the Aria hotel and we got to eat at Bobby’s Burger Palace a day before it opened to the public. The Iron Chef himself cooked us our burgers! (Inside tip: Bobby says that getting your burgers cooked “medium” is the only way to do it! 😉 )
While we were eating, who should walk in by Ms. Giada De Laurentiis! 
She was the size of 2 of me and smelled very clean. It was seriously one of the coolest experiences of our lives!
A day later, I returned to Vegas to celebrate my twin sisters’ 21st birthdays!!! Some of the craziest, funnest times of my life. 
Then in April, my little boy turned 2. 
Later that month, I went to the Festival of Books at USC (my alma mater) and met one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite cute actors, who also happened to write a book. 
In June, Anthony’s brother got married, which means that I officially have an extended family. 😀
In July, we had another very special trip to Vegas… We also saw Rome of Sublime with Rome, one of the Anthony’s favorite artists, in concert.
On July 31st, Anthony proposed to me at Disneyland. ❤ ❤ ❤
A week later, on August 9th, we surprised our families by getting married at our going-away party.
On September 21st, we said goodbye to our family and friends and departed LAX for Dubai.
On September 22nd, we arrived in Dubai, ready to start our new adventure in our lives as a family.
Some really exciting things await me this year:
My son will turn 3, so that means time for me to potty train him (not too exciting, but I’m sure it will be an adventure in motherhood!). He’ll also start preschool out here, and I hope to get him into a bilingual program where he’ll learn another language (either French or Arabic).
We’re going to go visit home. Can’t wait!
This month, I’m volunteering with Answering T.T.P., a nonprofit that raises awareness for the rare blood disease Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, and writing a short story/novella with a character who has T.T.P. I’ll be publishing a new chapter/portion every week. I’m excited but also nervous to publish some fiction out in the world!
I also found out that I was chosen to be a Hungry Girl V.I.P., which means that I will be on the Hungry Girl diet for 4 weeks and will report on my progress (like my weekly weight, feedback on recipes, and daily food intake) for possible publication to their thousands of email newsletter subscribers.
And I want to change the look of this blog and continue writing even more often!
I’ve written this blog partly to stay busy with something for myself and partly to keep those interested up-to-date on what’s going on in our lives. We miss everyone terribly. There are times where I cry and feel like I just want to take the next plane home and then there are moments where I look around and can’t believe we’re here. What an incredible blessing it is to have the opportunity to move out here and see things I never in my life thought I would see. I’ve never been someone who yearned to travel. Now we’re here seeing and experiencing a world that simply amazes me. We’re so fortunate, and, in the end, we know that no matter how much we miss California and everyone and everything in it, we’ll be back.
Can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for us!
Los Angeles to Dubai 